Kindred Hospital Paramount Earns ScionHealth’s ‘Platinum Award’ ‒ Parent Company’s Top Honor for Hospital Quality

On May 6, 2025, leaders from ScionHealth celebrated Kindred Hospital Paramount as a recipient of the National Quality Strategy Awards’ 2024 Overall Platinum Award. Pictured, front row, from left to right, are, Paige Harford, VP of Quality Systems and Regulatory Compliance, ScionHealth; Nikki Cunningham, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Clinical Officer, Kindred Hospital Paramount; Mark Apodaca (holding the crystal trophy), Market CEO, Kindred Hospital Paramount; Lisa Manor, Chief Nursing Officer, Specialty Hospitals, Pacific Region, ScionHealth; and Loren Perona, VP of Clinical Coordination, Specialty Hospitals, ScionHealth. Back row, from left to right: Linn Billingsley, President, Specialty Hospitals – West, ScionHealth; Dr. Mehmet Pekerol, Chief of Staff, Kindred Hospital Paramount;  and Dr. Dean French, EVP and Chief Medical Officer, ScionHealth.

PARAMOUNT, California (May 6, 2025) – Kindred Hospital Paramount was honored on Tuesday, May 6 as one of four ScionHealth-owned hospitals to earn the “Platinum Award,” the top recognition attainable within the company’s National Quality Strategy. ScionHealth leaders presented the award at a ceremony at the specialty hospital, which is one of 85 ScionHealth-owned hospitals on campuses across 28 states. ScionHealth launched its National Quality Strategy in 2023; and Tuesday’s award was based on Kindred Hospital Paramount’s performance in 2024.

“Kindred Hospital Paramount is thrilled to be recognized for clinical quality by ScionHealth,” said Mark Apodaca, Market CEO of Kindred Hospital Paramount. “To earn top-performer status among a cadre of outstanding hospitals across the country is quite an honor and one that is well-deserved. The team at Paramount has done an incredible job continuously elevating the quality of care at our hospital and ingraining best practices that put the patients and safety first.”

Kindred Hospital Paramount, a 183-bed hospital that provides long-term acute care and specialized rehabilitation services for medically complex patients, excelled across the quality program’s key metrics, especially in providing “safe” care, as demonstrated by the hospital’s streak of more than 950 days without a Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) or Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI).

The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy promotes best practices and measures the success of its hospitals’ quality performance over a 12-month period. The rigorous program enables and empowers hospitals to continuously improve patient care, safety, and satisfaction with an underlying goal of zero patient harm. Kindred Hospital Paramount and other Platinum Award recipients – Kindred Hospital Clear Lake (Webster, Texas), Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center (Hartsville, South Carolina), and Watertown (Wisconsin) Regional Medical Center – outperformed all other ScionHealth hospitals while achieving exceptional quality performance.

The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy measures hospital quality over the six domains of healthcare quality established by the Institute of Medicine. Each domain features a mix of clinical metrics and best practices that include clinical protocols, training, and leadership. The more a hospital succeeds in each category, the more likely it will achieve better results in terms of patient safety, outcomes, and experiences. Here is a brief overview of each domain, including the key specialty hospital metrics that are scored:

• Effective – The hospital provides evidence-based care to all who could benefit, and refrains from providing services to those not likely to benefit, avoiding both underuse and misuse. Key ScionHealth metrics: successful discharge to home or community; mortality rate; improvement in ventilator patient mobility; ventilator liberation rate; sepsis measures; and more.
• Efficient – Through strong teamwork and open communication, the hospital reduces waste and allows time and resources to be optimized toward effective patient care. Key ScionHealth metrics: length-of-stay measures; antibiotic stewardship efforts; lower return to acute care rates; and more.
• Equitable – The hospital’s patients should have the opportunity to achieve their highest health potential, regardless of socially determined circumstances. Key ScionHealth metrics: initiatives and progress in addressing healthcare disparities.
• Patient-Centered – The hospital’s patients are its top priority. The hospital cares for their physical comfort and emotional well-being and respects patient and family preferences and values. By involving patients and families in care-plan development, the hospital improves healing and recovery. Key ScionHealth metrics: HCAHPS patient survey results (administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), effective implementation of foundational behaviors, bedside shift reports, rounding best practices, and more.
• Safe – By approaching patient safety initiatives holistically and systemically, the hospital strives to make safe care ordinary and routine. Key ScionHealth metrics: assessment of areas of harm reduction such as preventing/reducing falls, central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and C. difficile (a colon infection); improvement in safety event reporting, and related safety training.
• Timely – Timeliness of care is a crucial aspect of improving patient outcomes. By accurately assessing and appropriately addressing the urgency of care, the hospital strives to reduce harmful delays and minimize waste. Key ScionHealth metrics: meeting medical consultation timeframe expectations; and timely wound care assessments, primary care nurse skin assessments, and imaging, among other things.

“The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy challenges each hospital and each team member to ingrain quality and safety in everything they do,” said Dr. Dean French, Chief Medical Officer at ScionHealth. “The program is specific, measurable, and adaptive – the continuous improvement and best practice-sharing it encourages from within our family of hospitals positively impacts the entire organization. We were thrilled to experience the year-over-year improvement achieved by Kindred Hospital Paramount and so many of our hospitals, and excited to see how the progress we’ve made on our quality journey continues to elevate patient care.”

About Kindred Hospital Paramount

Kindred Hospital Paramount – part of ScionHealth’s Specialty Hospital Division – is a 183-bed, freestanding hospital in Paramount, California, featuring 165 beds dedicated to long-term acute care and an 18-bed acute rehabilitation unit. The hospital offers the same in-depth care one would receive in a traditional hospital, but for an extended recovery period. Located at 16453 South Colorado Avenue in Los Angeles County, the facility is the largest long-term acute care provider in the region. Kindred Hospital Paramount partners with each patient’s physician and offers 24-hour clinical care seven days a week so that patients can quickly start their journeys to wellness. Learn more about the hospital here.